If things had been slightly different, Rose would be feeling particularly smug at the moment.

For some reason, Camilla had apparently decided that Rose was involved in the ambush. Rose was pretty sure that was just a random accusation, and not an indication that Camilla had actually seen her or anything like that. Garen had called Rose into his office to question her, but he had offered no proof (and hadn’t been a hardass in questioning her), which Rose considered indicative of her suspicion. She was a little offended that Camilla would automatically assume she was involved, but the Aquila didn’t spend a whole lot of time concerned about what rampant-bitch-Camilla was thinking about her.

On the other hand, Marissa…

Rose despondently stirred the hot cereal in front of her. For the first time in their five years of friendship, Marissa was mad at her. She had found out that Rose and Ruben had jumped Camilla. Rose had never intended for Marissa to find out, but in retrospect the girl realized she should have put more stock in the RMI rumour mill. But Rose had never expected Marissa to be angry at her, if she found out. Admittedly Rose hadn’t spent much time thinking about the potential consequences of her actions other than teaching Camilla a lesson, but the idea of Marissa being angry was something that she couldn’t help but dwell on. Without the constant companionship of her best friend and roommate, Rose honestly felt a little lost.

She had noticed Danny sitting down near her, but hadn’t said anything to him. Rose liked Danny but wasn’t in the mood for socializing. When he started to ask her to pass him something she looked up for a second, but raised a quizzical eyebrow when the request for her to pass something turned into an invitation to his place over the summer.

“Fine with me,” she said. Reasons to not be at her father’s house over the summer were good things, and even though Danny was, well, male, his family was Respectable Purebloods so her father would trust Danny’s family to prevent any shenanigans. Rose was not particularly inclined towards shenanigans of a romantic or sexual nature with Danny, but that argument on its own would have held no water with her father. “Why?” she asked, curious.

Considering what he had learned over the past five years about Rose’s relationship with her family at home, Danny hadn’t expected her to turn his offer down, although she did surprise him by agreeing ... more

Rose’s outfit-related query was delivered in a way that indicated her acceptance of his invitation might depend on Danny’s answer, which would have caused him some concern if she hadn’t actually... more

“Robes it is!” Rose said definitively, giving her hot cereal a stir. By this point ‘hot’ might have been a little bit of a strong adjective for the congealing lumps in the bowl in front of her; the... more

He tried not to grin when Rose made her answer which was - in a weird and roundabout way - her agreeing to play engagement at the end of the summer. He thought he did a pretty good job of keeping a... more

Rose snickered at Danny’s response to her inquiry. She didn’t bother to hide it - by this point, Danny knew that she could find him infinitely entertaining on the right day, and the severity of his... more

Danny was not the least surprised that Rose rejected his premise. He pushed his breakfast plate to the side and clasped his hands on the table while he listened to her revised version of events. He... more